Megan Kruse

Call Me Home Megan Kruse

Marc Notes: Call Me Home has an epic scope in the tradition of Louise Erdrich's The Plague of Doves or Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping and braids the stories of a family in three distinct voices: Amy, who leaves her Texas home at nineteen to start a new life with a man she barely knows, and her two children, Jackson and Lydia, who are rocked by their parents' abusive relationship. When Amy is forced to bargain for the safety of one child over the other, she must retrace the steps in the life she has chosen. Jackson, eighteen and made visible by his sexuality, leaves home and eventually finds work on a construction crew in the Idaho mountains, where he begins a potentially ruinous affair with Don, the married foreman of his crew. Lydia, his twelve-year-old sister, returns with her mother to Texas, struggling to understand what she perceives to be her mother's selfishness. At its heart, this is a novel about family, our choices and how we come to live with them, what it means to be queer in the rural West, and the changing idea of home--; Provided by publisher. Jacket Description/Back: Megan Kruse is a fiction and creative nonfiction writer from the Pacific Northwest. She studied creative writing at Oberlin College and earned her MFA at the University of Montana, where she was awarded a Bertha Morton scholarship. Her creative writing has appeared in Narrative Magazine, The Sun Witness Magazine, Thumbnail Magazine, Bellingham Review, and Phoebe, among others. Elizabeth Gilbert is an American author, essayist, short story writer, biographer, novelist and memoirist. She is best known for her 2006 memoir, Eat, Pray, Love, which spent 199 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list, and was also made into a film by the same name. Review Quotes: Megan Kruse is a young writer of raw and fearless talent and "Call Me Home" showcases all she can do. She writes here of harrowing lives -- of a family bent and broken by violence, where each person is desperately trying to somehow grow toward light and liberation. In the process, she offers a most unlikely tale of hardness and hustle, of grace and loss, of painful love and tough breaks and the unimaginable paths we must all eventually take toward survival. --Elizabeth Gilbert, Author of "Eat, Pray, Love" "Call Me Home" is an uncommonly powerful debut novel. Megan Kruse writes with great heart and intelligence as she crafts a gripping story from the shards of a broken family. --Jess Walter, Author of "Beautiful Ruins" I've been a big fan of Megan Kruse for a long time, but "Call Me Home" left me astonished by her talent. Beautifully written, deeply felt and utterly compelling, this story of a desperate family separated and on the run is full of unforgettable scenes and richly imagined characters and heady suspense. It's so vivid, it feels like my own memory. I recommend it with all my heart. --Dan Chaon, Author of "Await Your Reply" Megan Kruse has written a tough, unflinching and very loving story about an isolated family trying to scrape by and find a way, one way or another, to survive. I was deeply moved by the lives of her characters and scared for them right up to the end. Just a wonderful book, in every way. --Beverly Lowry, Author of "Crossed Over: A Murder, A Memoir" An urgent, beautiful book about love and its consequences, set against a backdrop of the unglamorized West. These characters will lodge themselves in your imagination, stick with you long after you're done reading. A fine and original first novel. --Kevin Canty, Author of "Winslow in Love" I'm not sure how Megan Kruse did it. Her first novel manages to be a swift yet contemplative story of how a family can love each other fiercely even when every heart involved gets broken. Through its cast of characters, she is able to focus on what makes a human life shine with joy or ache with conflict. Her writing is cinematic--going from intense close-ups to beautiful sweeping wide shots. "Call Me Home" is a multi-layered and deeply felt wonder. --Kevin Sampsell, Author of "A Common Pornography" I can't stop thinking about this book. "Call Me Home" is a harrowing, beautiful, and tender novel about the meaning of home, loneliness, and the endurance of love. Megan Kruse is a talented and fearless writer, and the prose is just stunning. "Call Me Home" is a tremendous accomplishment. --Carter Sickels, Author of "The Evening Hour" Megan Kruse is a stunning and inspiring new voice in American literature. Her beautiful debut, "Call Me Home, " proves that even as the violence of our lives invents us, a story can do something like save us. Read it and stick it in your heart. --Ariel Gore, Author of "The End of Eve" Blurb to come from: Peter Orner, Author of "Love and Shame and Love"Jacket Description/Flap: "Call Me Home" has an epic scope in the tradition of Louise Erdrich's "The Plague of Doves" or Marilynne Robinson's "Housekeeping" and braids the stories of a family in three distinct voices: Amy, who leaves her Texas home at nineteen to start a new life with a man she barely knows, and her two children, Jackson and Lydia, who are rocked by their parents' abusive relationship. When Amy is forced to bargain for the safety of one child over the other, she must retrace the steps in the life she has chosen. Jackson, eighteen and made visible by his sexuality, leaves home and eventually finds work on a construction crew in the Idaho mountains, where he begins a potentially ruinous affair with Don, the married foreman of his crew. Lydia, his twelve-year-old sister, returns with her mother to Texas, struggling to understand what she perceives to be her mother's selfishness. At its heart, this is a novel about family, our choices and how we come to live with them, what it means to be queer in the rural West, and the changing idea of home. Biographical Note: Megan Kruse is a fiction and creative nonfiction writer from the Pacific Northwest. She studied creative writing at Oberlin College and earned her MFA at the University of Montana, where she was awarded a Bertha Morton scholarship. Her creative writing has appeared in "Narrative Magazine," "The Sun," "Witness Magazine," "Thumbnail Magazine," "Bellingham Review," and "Phoebe," among others. She lives in Seattle. Elizabeth Gilbert is an American author, essayist, short story writer, biographer, novelist and memoirist. She is best known for her 2006 memoir, "Eat, Pray, Love," which spent 199 weeks on the "New York Times" bestseller list, and was also made into a film by the same name. She lives in Frenchtown, NJ. Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 01/19/2015 (EAN 9780990437000, Paperback) - *Starred Review Booklist 02/15/2015 pg. 30 (EAN 9780990437000, Paperback) Contributor Bio:  Gilbert, Elizabeth Elizabeth Gilbert is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Eat, Pray, Love, and several other internationally bestselling books of fiction and nonfiction. Gilbert began her career writing for Harper's Bazaar, Spin, The New York Times Magazine and GQ, and was a three-time finalist for the National Magazine Award. Her story collection Pilgrims was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway award; The Last American Man was a finalist for both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. The follow-up memoir Committed became an instant #1 New York Times bestseller. Her latest novel, The Signature of All Things, was named a Best Book of 2013 by The New York Times, O Magazine, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, and The New Yorker. Gilbert s short fiction has appeared in Esquire, Story, One Story, and the Paris Review.